Limit memory on a docker container doesn't wor

Question

Running last version of docker on top of ubuntu 13.04

root@docker:~# docker version
Client version: 0.6.6
Go version (client): go1.2rc3
Git commit (client): 6d42040
Server version: 0.6.6
Git commit (server): 6d42040
Go version (server): go1.2rc3
Last stable version: 0.6.6

But when I start the container

root@docker:~# docker run -m=1524288 -i  -t ubuntu /bin/bash
root@7b09f638871a:/# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          1992        608       1383          0         30        341
-/+ buffers/cache:        237       1755
Swap:         2047          0       2047

I don't see any limiting from any kind, and my kernel has cgroups memory limit enabled:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-33-generic ro console=tty0 root=/dev/xvda1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1

What obvious thing am I missing here ?

Answer 1

free won't show it as this is enforced via cgroups. Instead on the host (outside the container) you can check using /sysfs and the cgroup memory

vagrant@precise64:~$ docker run -m=524288 -d  -t busybox sleep 3600
f03a017b174f
vagrant@precise64:~$ cat /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/lxc/f03a017b174ff1022e0f46bc1b307658c2d96ffef1dd97e7c1929a4ca61ab80f//memory.limit_in_bytes
524288

To see it run out of memory you can run something that will use more memory than you allocate - eg:

docker run -m=524288 -d -p 8000:8000 -t ubuntu:12.10  /usr/bin/python3 -m http.server
8480df1d2d5d
vagrant@precise64:~$ docker ps | grep 0f742445f839
vagrant@precise64:~$ docker ps -a | grep 0f742445f839
0f742445f839        ubuntu:12.10        /usr/bin/python3 -m    16 seconds ago       Exit 137                                blue_pig

In dmesg you should see the container and process killed:

[  583.447974] Pid: 1954, comm: python3 Tainted: GF          O 3.8.0-33-generic #48~precise1-Ubuntu
[  583.447980] Call Trace:
[  583.447998]  [<ffffffff816df13a>] dump_header+0x83/0xbb
[  583.448108]  [<ffffffff816df1c7>] oom_kill_process.part.6+0x55/0x2cf
[  583.448124]  [<ffffffff81067265>] ? has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x15/0x20
[  583.448137]  [<ffffffff81191cc1>] ? mem_cgroup_iter+0x1b1/0x200
[  583.448150]  [<ffffffff8113893d>] oom_kill_process+0x4d/0x50
[  583.448171]  [<ffffffff816e1cf5>] mem_cgroup_out_of_memory+0x1f6/0x241
[  583.448187]  [<ffffffff816e1e7f>] mem_cgroup_handle_oom+0x13f/0x24a
[  583.448200]  [<ffffffff8119000d>] ? mem_cgroup_margin+0xad/0xb0
[  583.448212]  [<ffffffff811949d0>] ? mem_cgroup_charge_common+0xa0/0xa0
[  583.448224]  [<ffffffff81193ff3>] mem_cgroup_do_charge+0x143/0x170
[  583.448236]  [<ffffffff81194125>] __mem_cgroup_try_charge+0x105/0x350
[  583.448249]  [<ffffffff81194987>] mem_cgroup_charge_common+0x57/0xa0
[  583.448261]  [<ffffffff8119517a>] mem_cgroup_newpage_charge+0x2a/0x30
[  583.448275]  [<ffffffff8115b4d3>] do_anonymous_page.isra.35+0xa3/0x2f0
[  583.448288]  [<ffffffff8115f759>] handle_pte_fault+0x209/0x230
[  583.448301]  [<ffffffff81160bb0>] handle_mm_fault+0x2a0/0x3e0
[  583.448320]  [<ffffffff816f844f>] __do_page_fault+0x1af/0x560
[  583.448341]  [<ffffffffa02b0a80>] ? vfsub_read_u+0x30/0x40 [aufs]
[  583.448358]  [<ffffffffa02ba3a7>] ? aufs_read+0x107/0x140 [aufs]
[  583.448371]  [<ffffffff8119bb50>] ? vfs_read+0xb0/0x180
[  583.448384]  [<ffffffff816f880e>] do_page_fault+0xe/0x10
[  583.448396]  [<ffffffff816f4bd8>] page_fault+0x28/0x30
[  583.448405] Task in /lxc/0f742445f8397ee7928c56bcd5c05ac29dcc6747c6d1c3bdda80d8e688fae949 killed as a result of limit of /lxc/0f742445f8397ee7928c56bcd5c05ac29dcc6747c6d1c3bdda80d8e688fae949
[  583.448412] memory: usage 416kB, limit 512kB, failcnt 342

Answer 2

If you are using a newer version of docker, then the place to look for that info is /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/<container_id>/memory.limit_in_bytes:

docker run --memory="198m" redis
docker ps --no-trunc` # to get the container long_id
313105b341eed869bcc355c4b3903b2ede2606a8f1b7154e64f913113db8b44a

cat /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/313105b341eed869bcc355c4b3903b2ede2606a8f1b7154e64f913113db8b44a/memory.limit_in_bytes
207618048 # in bytes

Answer 3

Linking to this nice post on stressing container memory usage. Here's the summary, modified a bit to work for docker instead of generic LXC:

Launch container with a memory limit:

$ sudo docker -m 512M -it ubuntu /bin/bash
root# apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential

Create a file foo.c inside the container with the following

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    int i;
    for (i=0; i<65536; i++) {
        char *q = malloc(65536);
        printf ("Malloced: %ld\n", 65536*i);
    }
    sleep(9999999);
}

Compile the file

gcc -o foo foo.c

Open a new terminal to monitor the container memory usage:

$ cd /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/lxc/{{containerID}}
$ while true; do echo -n "Mem Usage (mb): " && expr `cat memory.usage_in_bytes` / 1024 / 1024; echo -n "Mem+swap Usage (mb): " && expr `cat memory.limit_in_bytes` / 1024 / 1024; sleep 1; done

Start the memory consumption in the container

$ ./foo

Now watch your container max out. Note: When you're out of memory malloc's start to fail, but otherwise the container is left alone. Normally the software inside the container will crash due to the failing mallocs, but software that is resilient will continue to operate

Final Note: Docker's -m flag does not count swap and ram separately. If you use -m 512M then some of that 512 will be swap, not RAM. If you want only RAM you will need to use LXC options directly (which means you will need to run docker with the LXC execution driver instead of libcontainer)

# Same as docker -m 512m
sudo docker run --lxc-conf="lxc.cgroup.memory.limit_in_bytes=512M" -it ubuntu /bin/bash

# Set total to equal max RAM (e.g. don't use swap)
sudo docker run --lxc-conf="lxc.cgroup.memory.max_usage_in_bytes=512M" --lxc-conf="lxc.cgroup.memory.limit_in_bytes=512M" -it ubuntu /bin/bash

There is a notable difference between using swap as part of the total and not - with swap the foo program above reaching ~450M quickly and then slowly consumes the remainder, whereas with only RAM it immediately jumps to 511M for me. With swap the container's memory consumption is marked at ~60M as soon as I enter the container - this is basically the swap being counted as "usage". Without swap my memory usage is <10M when I enter the container